by Sean Highkin, USA TODAY Sports

by Sean Highkin, USA TODAY Sports

The Indiana Pacers eliminated the New York Knicks on Saturday to advance to the Eastern Conference finals for the first time since 2004. Whether they can beat the Miami Heat and advance to the NBA Finals for the first time since 2000 comes down to one thing: Whether or not they can stop LeBron James.

James is the best player in the world playing at the height of his powers, so asking any team to slow him down is a tall order. However, if there's one team that's well-equipped to handle James, it's Indiana.

Stylistically, Indiana can pose matchup problems for Miami's small-ball style. Roy Hibbert and David West have provided outstanding rim protection throughout the entire postseason. If they can take away the ability of James and Dwyane Wade to find easy looks in the paint, they can force the Heat's superstars to settle for more jumpers.

Paul George will likely see the most time defending James on the perimeter, but Lance Stephenson gives them another option to throw at him. Both of them will make him work for shots and force the Heat to rely more heavily on other players to make shots.

The Heat are still a better team than the Pacers, but their best chance to upset Miami is to take James out of the picture as much as possible. It's tough to imagine anybody being able to stop him entirely, but Indiana's defense is the best in the league and can at least make him work harder to score or set teammates up for open looks.

Foul trouble: Three Knicks fouled out during Game 6 of the Eastern Conference semifinals. Tyson Chandler, Iman Shumpert and Kenyon Martin each picked up six fouls. Carmelo Anthony collected five.

Next up:

The Western Conference finals begin on Sunday. The San Antonio Spurs will host the Memphis Grizzlies at 3:30 p.m. Eastern time on ABC.